


Merchant of Death

by ArgentDandelion



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Before the Human-Monster War, Fiction, Gen, Human-Monster War (Undertale), Human/Monster Society, Minor Character Death, Murder, Paranoia, Pre-Canon, Soldiers, Time Skips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-24
Updated: 2020-03-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:08:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23296765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArgentDandelion/pseuds/ArgentDandelion
Summary: Before the first war of humans and monsters, a nine-year-old human girl misinterprets a homophone. Ten years later, the girl is a soldier, charged to exterminate monsters.
Kudos: 5





	Merchant of Death

Bright green leaves unfurled from the branches. The sky was an endless blue.

It was a beautiful morning on a beautiful spring day, and the perfect day to go to the market.

“Look! People!” Ketara pointed with a stick she had picked up.

“Remember to behave yourself, Ketara,” her mother admonished. “Nine-year-olds are grown-up enough to know not to point...aren’t they?” Her mother looked back at her from the cart, raising her eyebrows.

“Oh! Yes, Mom.”

The cart got closer and closer to the market square. Ketara looked all around. There were lots of people — lots and lots! Some of them had very interesting clothes. And colorful ones!

Ketara looked behind the cart. Something _big,_ and _hairy_ , and strange had just passed into an alley.

“I saw something!...some...some kind of mon...wild animal!”

“Now, dear, there are no wild animals in the market....you’re not assuming a hairy guy is an animal, are you?” her mother joked.

“No! It wasn’t a _hairy guy_!”

“Then what made you think it was a wild animal?” she said lightly.

Ketara opened her mouth and shut it again, chewing over her answer. Suddenly, the cart stopped. Ketara’s mother helped her out of the cart and moved to hold her hand. “I don’t need you to hold my hand, Mom!” Ketara said, flicking the stick for emphasis. “I’m a grown-up!”

“Well, alright. But stay close, dear.”

Her mother strolled through the market square, deftly weaving between the stalls and shops and scrum of people.

“Ketara?”

“Coming, Mom!”

Eventually, the crowd got thinner. The stalls at this part of the market looked even stranger, even more colorful. So many of the stalls looked like animals: she could even see clumps of fur by some of them.

Her mother paused by one of the stalls, with displays of vials and barrels of colorful liquids. Behind it was a tent: probably for storing more goods.

The shopkeeper wasn’t there. Ketara’s mother paused for a moment, as if she had just remembered something important.

She knelt beside Ketara and looked into her eyes. “Now, dear, Ms. Trebuchet may look a little strange to us, but that’s nothing to be afraid of.”

“How strange?”

“Well, she’s...”

The tent flap opened. An imposing figure strode up to the counter, eyes dark and empty, her pale and toothy face devoid of flesh, devoid of blood. Its body was _only bones_.

Ketara jumped in front of her mother and brandished the stick, pointing it straight at the creature’s chest.

“Don’t worry, Mom. _I’ll protect you._ ”

The creature flinched, its eyes widening slightly. In the light she could see little pits scraped out from below the creature’s empty sockets. _Probably battle scars from those who desperately fought it...and failed._

“You don’t need to do this,” the skeleton said evenly. Her voice emanated from nowhere, with a strange echo. “I’m only a merchant. I sell dyes.”

Ketara narrowed her eyes. “So you admit it. You make people _die_ ...what is an assassin but a _merchant of death_?”

Something grabbed onto the stick and yanked it away. Ketara looked at her mother in shock. “Enough of this.” Her mother practically hissed, raising her stick beyond her reach. “This is _Ms. Trebuchet,_ the woman I was mentioning. Dyes are _pigments_. Colors. To make clothes _more colorful_.” Her mother was glaring at her, speaking slowly and loudly.

“I’m so sorry about my daughter’s behavior, _Ms. Trebuchet_ ,” she said, putting emphasis on her name. “I suppose taking her to the market at nine years old was...premature.” She looked back at Ketara and frowned. “But I’m _sure_ she will apologize for this immediately.”

Ketara’s mother turned her whole body around and waited, the stick crossed over her chest.

“Ketara. Apologize. Now.” She said, quieter this time.

Ketara stared, wide-eyed. Her mother had disarmed her, her mother was _glaring_ at her, and that beast of bones was gazing at her with an awkward, forced indifference.

 _I was being_ _brave_. _Just like I’m supposed to. Protecting the good guys from the bad guys. And...I’m a grown-up! I’m_ nine. _I’m very smart and very brave and...and..._

Ketara’s lips pursed. Tears built up in her eyes.

_No. No. I won’t cry. I’m too grown-up to cry..._

“Ketara.” Ms. Trebuchet’s voice echoed.

“I know humans find monsters scary sometimes. Skeletons, especially, because of our unfortunate resemblance to human dead,” the skeleton spoke slowly, her voice somehow coming out from nothing but bones, nothing but teeth. “But that’s no reason to come to blows. We’re just normal people, living in peaceful ways.”

Ms. Trebuchet reached out from her stall’s counter. Ketara flinched— but she only patted Ketara on the head. Once. Twice.

“Thank you,” Ketera’s mother said. She glared at Ketara again. “You stay here. We’re going to talk about _normal merchant business_ inside.” And with a flip of the tent flap, Ketara was alone with her shock.

\----

“Aren’t monsters peaceful?” she had asked.

The man leaned in. “Monsters. Aren’t. Peaceful. If they had nothing to hide...wouldn’t they have _told us_ about their power to absorb human SOULs?”

\----

**Ten years later...**

Clouds greyed the sky on this cool autumn day. The autumn wind cut through the forest of pine trees, rustling the branches far above her. She had lost track of the time: the dense cloth of the clouds hid the sun, and the pine trees’ shadows cast a perpetual twilight.

Ketara scanned the area and tightened her cloak around her.

 _Just a few stragglers left_ , Ketara thought. _Just a few, hiding in the woods. Poor choice. It’s daylight, and there’s no undergrowth._

 _There!_ A shadow. A tall figure, a sprint’s distance away, trying to dash between the trees.

Ketara found herself running before she could even think.

 _It’s not dressed like a soldier...there’s something_ too _pale about its_ _skin_...she thought between breaths.

The pine needles crunched beneath them. Ketara’s arms sliced through the air. The cold bite of the wind meant nothing in the heat of battle.

She was gaining ground quickly...the target sure didn’t know how to run.

_This will be easy ._

The figure tried to make a sudden turn between two of the bigger trees: probably trying to throw her off. The target tripped over a root and fell to its side, losing what little advantage it had left.

_Big mistake._

In but a moment, the target got on its back and righted itself. In but a moment, she shoved it back down against the tree and pinned it. Its body rustled the thick bed of pine needles. Ketara’s boots scuffed up the dirt as she straddled its chest. _Perfect pin,_ she thought absently.

The target started babbling, flailing its arms in front of its chest like a flopping fish.

Ketara took out her sword, fluidly grasped it with her left hand, and prepared to plunge it down into the target’s chest.

The target’s chattering almost sounded like _no please no_.

Ketara froze.

The target’s eyes were big, and dark, and empty.

 _No please no_ no please no. Those strange echoing noises sounded more and more humanlike.

The target’s face was pitted below its eyes, like old wounds.

_No please no._

Tall. Pale. Toothy.

Just bones.

Something came unbidden to her... _a lovely spring day. Her first day at the market. Her mother’s words: “Now, dear, Ms. Trebuchet may look a little strange to us, but that’s nothing to be afraid of.”_

_Nine years ago. A discussion of aquamarine dye versus blue-green dye. A pat on the head._

_Eight years ago. The difference between pigments and dyes and mordants. A pat on the head._

Ketara’s breathing went strange.

_Two years ago. Ms. Trebuchet’s nervousness, her hurry, her clipped voice. Suddenly there were so much fewer monsters, even in the Monster Square...no pat on the head this time, as Ms. Trebuchet quickly packed up her wares._

_Two years ago. A fancy paper pinned to the wall, just outside the Monster Square. The army was recruiting. She was talking to her mother. “I’m strong and brave. Just like a soldier should be. If I can serve...then it’s my duty to protect.” Her mother said no. She went anyway._

Suddenly, Ketara’s sword felt heavy in her hands.

Ketara breathed in, the sword still poised above the enemy’s...the creature’s...the figure’s chest.

The figure was speaking differently. No more blabbering. No more wailing. But something still seemed tense about its eye sockets, empty as they were.

Of all her words, one sentence found its way into her consciousness. “You don’t need to do this.”

Ketara looked intently at the figure’s face. So much like Ms. Trebuchet’s. But its...her?...face was longer. The eye sockets a little smaller. The pits below the eyes were more numerous.

_How much can a person change in two years?_

“It’ll be dark soon.” The skeleton was _right._ Ketara could see her sword casting a shadow on the figure’s body, and she felt air turning even cooler. “No one will see me leave. I’ll go far, far away.” The skeleton continued, speaking calmly to her, as if she were a frightened little child. “Neither you nor any other humans will ever have to see me again.” She gave a small, grim smile.

“It’s a peaceful way out of this problem.”

Suddenly, the creature’s eyes went wide.

The enemy gazed down at its chest in shock...for a sword was lodged within it.

The body crackled faintly, like a stone splitting under heat. The cracking noise rapidly multiplied, until it was a constant, choked hiss. The enemy’s mouth moved.

Then the sword was taken out. Then the sword was plunged back in. Ketara heard more noises of the body breaking apart. More noises, ever fainter, came out of the enemy’s mouth.

It sounded almost like speech.

Little motes of dust floated into the air. The enemy’s eyes grew even emptier. Finally, the cracks spread up to its head, pulverizing it from within.

The body, all of it, had disintegrated into nothing more like a pile of clothes ill-suited for the weather and light grey sand. An unrecognizable mass. The sky was growing darker.

 _It’s time to go. There probably aren’t any more_.

As Ketara stood up from the body, she felt...odd.

It was a feeling, or mix of feelings, she couldn’t quite describe. First, there was that feeling of...strength. All suddenly, like going for hours without a meal without marching, without even knowing one was hungry, and suddenly regaining one’s strength after a meal. And there was...anticipation. Eagerness. Like a dinner bell.

And, faintly, there was an _ache_. Like an old scar, or childhood injury flaring up again. It just occurred to her that she had felt this before: when her enemy’s body was crackling, and hissing. The crackling then sounded like...

“ _Ke-ta-ra”._

Ketara shook it off. It was just her imagination. She slid her still-dusty sword back into her scabbard and walked back to the camp.

Behind her, the wind picked up again. And it tossed up the dust of the enemy’s corpse, and carried it away so quickly it might as well have been launched from a trebuchet.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> This work was made with naming help of [CinnamonAzzy](https://cinnamonazzy.tumblr.com/) and beta-reading help of [Batter-Sempai.](https://archiveofourown.org/users/batter_sempai/pseuds/batter_sempai)
> 
> Originally posted on my [Tumblr](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/). Feel free to comment on this article there or here.
> 
> This work was inspired by the theme of modern human-monster relations in ["Things Anti-Monster Politicians Could Do"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22175011/chapters/52937284%22)and ["Undertale: The Perils of Being Literally Not Human"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21841891). Please check them out: they could use more attention.


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